


Child of the Bane, Son of Earth

by scifinut



Category: Sarah Jane Adventures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-10
Updated: 2010-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-23 12:56:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/250531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scifinut/pseuds/scifinut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Children of Earth as seen from 13 Bannerman Road</p>
            </blockquote>





	Child of the Bane, Son of Earth

**Author's Note:**

> This was for [](http://torchwood-reset.livejournal.com/profile)[**torchwood_reset**](http://torchwood-reset.livejournal.com/) at Livejournal. It started out small then quickly got out of hand, and then apparently ran away. The ending is open for a reason. [**archae_ology**](http://archae-ology.livejournal.com/) has looked over it as a beta, but all mistakes are going to end up being mine in the end.

When the first 'attack' came, Sarah Jane was out doing some grocery shopping, picking up some vegetables for dinner. She had been following a lead in the morning, but nothing had come of it, so she had decided to enjoy the day. Coming up on a bank of televisions in a storefront, she looked to see what the commotion was about. As soon as she read the scroll along the bottom of the television, she ran home as quickly as she could. She needed to know what was going on and now. There were very few things that could control children like this worldwide, and there was one quick way to figure it out. And that one thing was waiting at her home.

As soon as she got home, she called Mr. Smith into action. The fanfare was annoying only in the fact that she was worried about time being of the essence. She waited until he was fully loaded before speaking. "There was some sort of signal earlier today. Children all over the planet were frozen and speaking in unison. I need to know what it was."

The computer paused a moment, compiling vast amounts of data. "I am unable to determine the cause of the signal. At the time, I was not scanning, and no source that I am able to access has any direct data on the event."

Sarah closed her eyes and nodded. This was not the information she'd expect to hear. "Stay on and continue scanning, I'm certain it's going to happen again. Also, monitor whatever government sources possible. I want to know what they know about this." She had long since given the computer information to access UNIT's computer officially, and it had found ways to access the rest of UNIT's files, as well as get into most government computers. She rarely used this information, but at times she had found it very useful in the past few years.

"Of course. Would you like me to monitor the news services as well?"

"No, I think right now that's not going to be worth it. They're all going to be spewing the same theories in a few hours anyway. Thank you."

"You are welcome, Sarah Jane Smith."

Sarah left the attic and headed downstairs. She would check in on the computer later that evening, unless something else happened that would make her go back upstairs. Even though there were still errands that could have been done, Sarah decided to wait around until Luke got home from school. She was certain that he was going to be fine, but it would do her good to see with her own eyes that he was okay. Besides, there was always housework. She could never get caught up on housework.

A few hours later, Luke came home alone. It was odd, usually Clyde or Rani came with him, but today he looked somewhat worried himself. "Mum, something happened at school. The teacher said we all kind of...stopped and started talking."

Sarah came over and pulled Luke into a hug. "I know. It happened all over the world."

Luke hugged his mother back before pulling away to look at her. "What was it? What's coming?"

"I don't know, Luke. Mister Smith has been checking with the government all afternoon, let's go up there and see what he's got." She led Luke by the shoulder upstairs into the attic. "Mr. Smith, what have you got for us?"

"Currently I have nothing to report. The government computer systems are quiet on the subject." Luke frowned at this news.

"You've got to have something!" he insisted. "It happened all over the world, how can you not know anything?"

Sarah put her hand on Luke's shoulder. "Luke, calm down. The news agencies have nothing to report except what happened. Mr. Smith wasn't scanning actively at the time of the bout, so he has no readings on it. If the government isn't using their computers to record what they're discussing or it's on a separate server."

Luke shook his head. "It's not right. There's got to be something out there. Somebody knows about what happened today, I'm sure of it." He went to sit over on the small loveseat in the attic. Sarah came to sit beside him and put her arm around his shoulders. He leaned against her. "I know they know about it. I just know it."

"I believe you. I'm sure that someone knows as well. Until they start using their computer systems, though, we're not going to know anything." Sarah squeezed her son's shoulder. "Did Clyde and Rani go straight home?"

"Clyde's mum pulled him out of school right after it happened. Rani got called to her dad's office and spent the day up there, probably went home with him. I don't think either of them will be in tomorrow."

"Do you want to go back to school tomorrow?" Sarah asked. She wasn't going to force Luke to do what he didn't want. Unless there was a serious reason to keep him home, she was going to let him decide if he wanted to go back to school or not.

Luke shook his head. "I don't know."

"You don't have to decide now, you know. If you wake up in the morning and would rather stay home, let me know then." She stood up and smiled. "Come on, let's go get something to eat, shall we? We'll come check back with Mr. Smith in a few hours, see if he's found anything yet."

They headed down the stairs to the kitchen, trying to maintain the routine of after school as best they could.

\----

It wasn't until that evening when anything happened again. Sarah and Luke were enjoying a nice evening watching movies together when Luke stood up, a blank look in his eyes. He began chanting mindlessly, and Sarah had to imagine it was similar to what had happened earlier. Part of her wanted to run upstairs and remind Mister Smith to record what was happening but the other part didn't want to leave Luke alone for a second of it. At the end of the chanting was the one word that scared her more than anything else had so far. "We are coming...back."

Luke shook his head and looked around. "Mom? Why am I standing up?"

Sarah leaned forward and pulled Luke into a tight hug. "It happened again, you were talking. Do you remember anything about it?"

"No." Luke shook his head. "What did I say?"

"You said 'We are coming back.'" Sarah said. She pulled away and took his hand. "Let's go see what Mister Smith found out about it, okay? You're alright now."

As they headed up the stairs the telephone rang. She ducked into her bedroom to pick up the handset. "Hello?" There was a pause. "Yes, Alan, it's happening here too. It just happened to Luke." Another pause. "No, he's doing fine. I'm heading upstairs right now to see what's going on. Shall I call you back?" She nodded her head. "Yes, of course I will. Don't worry, I'll let you know as soon as I do." As she set the phone back in its cradle she sighed. "Maria's affected by this as well. It appears to be worldwide, and Alan is nearly panicking."

Luke nodded. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine. Let's go see what we can find out." She knew that she was only putting off the inevitable of letting Luke call Maria and talk to her himself, and that would be followed by her own conversation with Alan telling him whatever she had learned from Mister Smith. The phone bill was going to be tripled this month, at least. But in all honesty, Sarah wouldn't have it any other way. Knowing what was happening and telling others was more important than numbers on a piece of paper at the end of the month.

"Sarah Jane, I have detected the frequency on which the signal is being sent to Earth," intoned the computer as they entered the attic room. "It is a psychic channel, although there has been activity on another low-frequency radio wave. It is still incoming at the moment."

"Play it," Sarah commanded. "I want to hear what it is they're saying."

The sound from the speakers was incomprehensible to the ears of Sarah Jane and Luke. It was soon cut off. "It will take a few moments after the end of the transmission for me to decode what exactly it means. It is a transmission of data rather than words."

"What about the psychic channel?" Luke asked. "How does that work?"

"Children and adolescents are much more susceptible to psychic attack than adults," Sarah explained. "Their minds haven't fully formed, and all of the chemical and physical changes in the body as it matures make it harder for someone to control the mind. That's not to say it can't be done, but controlling children is much easier. Their minds haven't been completely closed to the possibility of something else out there. But what can we do about it? Is there anything that can protect the children?"

"I am currently working on such a solution," responded the computer. "It will take several minutes." Sarah and Luke waited in silence for the computer to compute everything necessary for whatever solution he could come up with. "There seems to be one option for protecting people from the psychic link to the aliens."

"What is it?" Luke asked quickly.

An image came up on the main screen. It showed two wire-framed planes, each showing varying wave patterns. "The psychic link works by a frequency of psychic manipulation. If an opposing frequency were played, all those within the field of the opposing field would be safe. The original psychic frequency would be neutralized." The two planes aligned on the screen, and their wave patterns faded to nothing. "I am able to generate a field of this frequency, but only in a very limited range."

"How limited are we talking?" Sarah asked.

"Thirty meters at maximum," responded the computer. "It would also be dangerous to transmit this frequency at all times, it could damage the mind of anyone within that range."

Sarah sighed. There always had to be something. "That settles it. Luke, you're not going back to school tomorrow. You're going to stay home in case this happens again. Mister Smith, keep scanning everything you can within the government, I want to know immediately if you find something that would show they know about this. And whenever that psychic frequency starts, I want you to begin transmitting the opposite field, I don't want anyone tampering with my son's head!" She paced back and forth a few times on the floor.

"Mom, I don't want to stay home," Luke said quietly. "Nobody else is going to be staying home. I mean, maybe a few kids, sure, but everyone will be there. And you said it was up to me."

Sarah stopped pacing. "You're not going to school tomorrow. Or the day after that, until I'm sure you're safe there. Do you understand me? If you'd like to call Clyde or Rani over and invite them to stay if they're not in school, you're more than welcome to, but I'm not having you leave this house until we know for a fact that whatever is causing these psychic attacks is gone." She turned and headed down the stairs. Calling Alan back was not going to be an easy task.

Luke looked at the computer screen and shook his head slowly. "How many races do you know of that have the capability to project this psychic field over such a large distance?" he asked.

There was no hesitation in the computer's response. "None."

\----

It was nearly midnight and Sarah still couldn't sleep. Luke had long since gone to bed and had been sleeping when she had checked in on him, but her nerves were too tight. There was nothing she could do. The news reporters still had no idea what was going on, but that was nothing new. There was no information going through the government computers as far as Mister Smith was able to tell. The Doctor wasn't answering his phone, which was very odd, but there was nothing she could do about that.

She took a deep breath and picked up the phone, dialing it. When it went to voicemail on the other end she hung up. There was no use in leaving a message. Surely Martha would have seen what was going on, honeymoon or not. And her husband couldn't be so cold-hearted as to ignore it and make Martha do the same. There was only one option left. As much as Sarah hated to involve Torchwood, it couldn't be helped now. Maybe their guns were just what the situation needed. She dialed the phone again and was surprised to have it go to voicemail too.

"Jack, it's Sarah Jane Smith. Look, please call me back, I really need to talk with you. It's about Luke. I'm worried about him." She hung up the phone and placed it back into its cradle. "Someone, please, call me back," she whispered to the air. "I don't know that I can do this one alone. I may be in over my head here." She turned out the light and laid down in bed, staring at the phone until sleep claimed her sometime after midnight.

\----

"I know he's not in school, he's here at home with me today." Pause. "No, I'm not going to be sending him in." Pause. "Yes, perhaps I should have called, but I told him last night that he wasn't going in and spend most of the night awake worrying." Pause. "Yes, I've seen the news. But I'm a reporter myself, and I don't care what the news says. I'm going to be keeping him home until further notice. Put that down on his record, and don't call me again tomorrow about it."

Sarah heaved a sigh and set the phone in its cradle perhaps a bit more firmly than was strictly necessary. "Luke, is your secretary always so cross?" she asked.

"I dunno, I don't usually have to see her. You should ask Clyde, he's always up there, being called to the office for something or other." Luke stared at his mother. "Did you not call earlier and tell them I wouldn't be in?"

"I may have forgotten to telephone them this morning. From what I understand, though, most of the students are being held home for some reason or another. You would think that that woman would just accept the fact that I said you were here and let it go instead of berating me."

Luke shook his head and grinned. "Mum, stop thinking so much. You're going to wear yourself out."

Sarah mock glared at him. "You, young man, might just get in trouble like that."

"Probably not, though," he countered.

"Alright, upstairs with you. Haven't you got some sort of project that you need to be working on?" Sarah ushered Luke up the first flight of stairs. "Work on that, play games, I don't care what you do so long as you stay here or in the attic. I want to be sure you're in the range of Mister Smith in case another event comes, okay?" She turned from him to head down the hallway. "I'll be upstairs if you need me."

Luke nodded. He paused at the door to his bedroom. "Mum?"

Sarah stopped and turned back over her shoulder. "Yes?"

"Thanks."

Sarah smiled. "You're welcome."

\----

Sarah sat down, exhausted after a long day of cleaning. Nothing had happened to Luke that she had noticed, except that he had spent the entire day moping around the house quietly. Apparently a day of housework wasn't what he had planned on when he was told he wasn't going in to school.  
She turned on the television, expecting to see footage from yesterday and the news analysts still working on puzzling it out. Instead she saw new footage. All the children in the world pointing into the air. And when the anchor mentioned that they had all been pointing towards London, she took note. She sighed and headed upstairs. Mister Smith probably had figured it out by now.

As she headed up the stairs, Luke was on his way down. "Mum, Mister Smith finish analyzing what happened earlier."

She looked up at him. "I didn't realize until I turned the telly on that anything _had_ happened earlier. What was it?" She followed Luke back into the attic. He looked excited for the first time that day.

"There has been a transportation from an undetected source into one of the buildings of Parliament," stated the computer. "I am still trying to determine the source of the transportation as well as the purpose."

"Transportation of what? Energy? And how was it transported, by small craft?" Sarah Jane looked more than a bit puzzled.

"No, mum, it was a teleportation of matter. They beamed something from space into Parliament!" Luke nearly shouted. "I mean, that's fantastic in the sense that we're finally seeing proof of aliens, to the whole world! And they can teleport things!"

Sarah didn't share her son's enthusiasm. "Luke, there are so many potential problems with this, the world isn't ready yet." She sighed, knowing the problems that knowledge of aliens brought.

"There is a transmission on secured government frequencies. Would you like me to relay it?" the computer politely interrupted.

"Yes," Luke and Sarah chorused.

Within minutes both of them were sitting in shock on the loveseat holding each other. It didn't seem possible that their own government would simply give away a tenth of the children from their own country, let alone try to speak for the rest of the planet in allowing the same deal. Tears were coursing down Sarah's cheeks as she held Luke closely. "I'm not going to let anyone take you away, I promise you," she whispered fiercely. "Nobody is going to take my son away."

"What about Clyde and Rani?" Luke whispered. "And Maria, what will happen to her?"

Sarah shook her head. "I don't know. I just don't know."

\----

The next morning Sarah was awakened with Luke shaking her shoulder. They had stayed up late discussing what could be done for Luke's friends, but had decided that it wasn't in Sarah's power to do anything. "What is it?" she asked, immediately awake and worried that some government officials were already arriving to take Luke away from her.

"It's Mr. Smith. I slept up in the attic and he started broadcasting again, the same way as last night. It's like they're going from one room where the aliens are to another room and being sent within the building. But you've got to see this, mum." Luke sounded worried himself. "Mum, there's video this time. They keep the kids. They're attached to these...I guess it's the aliens, but they look...I don't even know."

Sarah sat up and shook the last of the sleep from her head. "Let me go see it." She stood and walked with Luke to the attic. "I meant what I said last night. I'm not giving you up. I don't care who I have to call in favors with, it's not going to happen. Not to my son."


End file.
